MY COUNTRY, 2009
MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA SALLY GABORI
synthetic polymer paint on linen
198.0 x 101.0 cm
bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title, medium and Mornington Island Arts and Crafts cat. 4897-L-SG-1009
Mornington Island Arts and Crafts, Mornington Island, Queensland
Private collection, Victoria, acquired from the above in 2012
This painting is accompanied by a copy of the certificate of authenticity from Mornington Island Arts and Crafts which states:
'This is the little river I was born next to on Bentinck Island.'
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori grew up on Bentinck Island, Northern Queensland, in the traditions of the Kaiadilt people who used the local marine resources to fulfill all their needs and had very little outside contact. After an intense drought and subsequent tidal surge made the island uninhabitable, at the age of 24, Mirdidingkingathi (meaning born at Mirdidingki River) Juwarnda (her totem, the dolphin) Sally Gabori and her family were persuaded to move to the adjacent Mornington Island – a move that prompted feelings of huge loss for the Kaiadilt people. Gabori began her art career late in life, at the age of 85, and Judith Ryan of the National Gallery of Victoria compares her immense innovation and star power to that of similar late-starters, Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Lorna Fencer Napurrula.1 Unlike many other Aboriginal language groups, the Kaiadilt did not have a tradition of mark making, whether on tools, objects or bark. Taking this cultural background into consideration, Gabori’s style is completely self-made, conjured from maps in her mind of Bentinck Island and the country she loved.
My Country, 2009 celebrates the artist’s birthplace of Mirdidingki – a small creek and estuary that runs from inland Bentinck Island to a small bay on the south-west coast. The creek ends in a long sandy tidal flat that extends out into the bay for hundreds of metres before transforming into a vibrant network of coral reefs teeming with turtles, fish and other sea-life. She is at once painting the saltpans and estuary of the land, a portrait of her connection to this country, and finally, her own longing, loss and memory.
1. Ryan, J., ‘Broken Colour and Unbounded Space’, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori: dulka warngiid: Land of All, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2016, pp. 33 – 34
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE